Day 5

One Hundred Years of Solitude Lesson Plan

Discussion of Thought Questions

1

What does it mean that Amaranta died “with all her nostalgias in tact”? Why does the narrator see this as a sign of immaturity?

(6 minutes)

Amaranta continued to hold on to the desires and anxieties of her adolescence until her death. The narrator tells us she still wept when listening to the music of Pietro Crespi. She still felt desire for the men in her past, even though some of them were inappropriate. She has held on to the past in a way that prevented her from moving completely into adulthood. For this reason, her nostalgia is a sign of immaturity. Your students may also suggest that Amaranta’s status as a lifelong virgin is also symbolic of her inability to enter adulthood....